MICHIGAN ROADS AND FORESTS. 



15 



UTILIZE MICHIGAN'S 



CUT-OVER LANDS 



About twenty years ago the attention of 

 some men familiar with the stock industry was 

 directed towards the vast tracts of wild land 

 in the counties stretching between the Sagi- 

 naw river and the Straits of Mackinaw. Hun- 

 dreds of thousands of acres of this region had 

 been owned by lumbermen who had skinned 

 off the pine timber and either abandoned the 

 land to the state not being willing to longer 

 pay the taxes, or held it at a nominal figure. 

 It is of course, understood that the soil of 

 the greater portion of this region is fertile and 

 capable of conversion into fine farms and 

 numerous flourishing towns had been founded 

 and become thrifty, but no movement had been 

 inaugurated by the state or any locality to 

 advertise the advantages of this region for 

 settlement; the lumbermen were not interested 

 to any extent in agriculture and many adverse 

 reports had gained circulation regarding the 

 fitness of the territory for development. 



When the men having a knowledge of the 

 stock industry began to investigate the coun- 

 try they quickly ascertained that it was es- 

 pecially adapted to grazing and shortly after 

 attempts were made in a small way in graz- 

 ing cattle and sheep. The results fully justi- 

 fied the expectations of those concerned, the 

 stock business began to develop, and thou- 

 sands of acres of land that had gone begging 

 at fifty cents to $3 an acre were picked up. 



At this writing hundreds of thousands of 

 acres of land suitable for stock purposes have 

 been taken up and converted into cattle and 

 sheep ranches and land once held at a merely 

 nominal figure is now valuable. Twenty-five 

 years ago the writer was offered several thou- 

 sand acres of land at fifty cents an acre that 

 has subsequently sold as high as $10 and $20 

 and the values of all land in that territory have 

 materially appreciated. Not only that but the 

 small stock beginning has expanded into a 

 large, successful and growing industry. Many 

 large ranches are in operation stocked with 

 thousands of cattle and sheep, and others are 

 projected. It isn't so long ago as to have 

 lapsed the memory even of middle-aged per- 

 sons when all the stock in that region was 

 shipped in to settlers and lumbermen, but 

 now regular shipments of cattle and sheep 

 are made to market. So rapidly has this busi- 

 ness developed that the Detroit & Mackinac 

 Railway has recently put on a special live stock 

 train between Alpena and Bay City, picking 

 up live stock between those points. It is ex- 

 pected this will be a permanent arrangement 

 and it will assist materially in expanding the 

 live stock industry in that region. Large ship- 

 ments of live stock are also made on the Mack- 

 inaw division of the Michigan Central between 

 Bay City and Cheboygan, and many are also 

 shipped from Clare county south via the Pere 

 Marquette. 



This industry is developing into a source of 

 great wealth to the territory under consider- 

 ation and to those engaged therein. Bay City 

 Tribune. 



SAGINAW PIONEER LUMBERMAN. 



The venerable Thomas Merrill, one of th; 

 pioneer lumbermen of the Saginaw Valley, first 

 located in Saginaw in 1853. A native of the 

 state of Maine, like many other of Saginaw's 

 lumbermen, he applied to his operations in 

 Michigan what he had learned of the. lumber 

 business in Maine. In 1853 he looked con- 

 siderable Michigan land, and satisfied himself 

 as to- its great timber value. At the time he 

 was the owner of a mill in Maine. He re- 

 turned to that state, and it was three years 

 'later when he same to Saginaw to make his 

 permanent home there. Mr. Merrill says: 



"For about ten years I operated on the Pine 

 river in company with Charles Merrill. We 

 made some mdney, and finally we dissolved 

 partnership. Then I went over to the Chip- 

 pi- \va and built a road across the ridge from 



the Pine to the Chippewa. I bought the 

 canal group of lands, ran in debt for part of 

 it, ran in debt for my camp outfit, borrowed 

 money enough to pay my men, had a good 

 season's lumbering, drove my logs myself 

 that is, superintended the drive with a good 

 crew, got them all in clean, and came home 

 with an empty pocket. I went to George L. 

 Burrows & Co., told Mr. Burrows what I had 

 and what I owed; told him I'd got to have 

 some money to pay off my men, and that I 

 wanted to give him a lien on the logs for the 

 money I needed. I didn'.t want to ask any one 

 to indorse me, it isn't likely any one would 

 have been willing to. Mr. Burrows said: '.Mr. 

 Merrill, you can have the money you need 

 I do not want any lien on your logs, nor any 

 indorsements." I thought that was very kind 

 of him. I sold them for a good price, cleaned 

 up all my debts, and had about $200,000. I in- 

 vested in Michigan lands, and afterwards in 

 .Minnesota and Pacific slope lands. I am not 

 doing much about the management of it now; 

 the boys look after that, but I guess there is 

 enough to keep them busy. 



"I commenced lumbering in the east, where 

 the sun rises, and am now operating in the 

 west, where the sun sets. My business has 

 crossed the country since I commenced." 



SAGINAW THE SALT CENTER. 



C. M. Ireton, secretary of the Michigan Salt 

 Association, says that there is a fair move- 

 ment in salt ,and the association has less salt 

 in its hands than usual. The market is ruling 

 steady at 60 cents. Saginaw valley granu- 

 lated salt is quoted five cents a barrel more 

 than the salt at Manistee, made in vacuum 

 pans. 



Mr. Ireton believes the time will soon come 

 when the production of salt at Manistee will 

 decline to insignificant proportions, while the 

 Saginaw valley product will greatly increase. 

 This will result from the fact that salt cannot 

 be manufactured at a profit where it is neces- 

 sary to buy fuel. The lumbering at Manistee 

 permits the production of salt by using refuse 

 from the lumber mills, but as soon as the lum- 

 bering passes the blocks will have to be shut 

 down because of lack of cheap fuel. The Sag- 

 inaw valley has an inexhaustible supply of 

 coal, and slack coal can be utilized in the pro- 

 duction of salt. The trouble with the salt 

 commodity is that owing to overproduction 

 the, price is 'low, and it is difficult to manufac- 

 ture .it at a profit. Michigan has a capacity to 

 produce 10,000,000 barrels annually, yet the 

 greatest quantity ever produced in any one 

 year was in 1905, when the product aggre- 

 gated 5,671,253 barrels. 



The Saginaw valley has manufacturing in- 

 dustries which use coal, and could operate 100 

 salt works in connection, and many of them 

 ,vill~ undoubtedly do so when lumber localities 

 now producing salt from refuse fuel go out of 

 commission. And it will not be long to wait. 



It is said 'that one of the largest plants at 

 Manistee is not working to half its capacity 

 this season by reason of being blocked up with 

 salt and unable to sell or move it. 



The production of salt this year will exceed 

 that of last year by nearly a million barrels. 

 Saginaw Courier-Herald. 



Advance sheets of the United States Geolog- 

 ical Survey report that more salt was pro- 

 duced in the United States in 1906 than in any 

 previous year, and that the value of the pro- 

 duct was greater than in any year since 1890. 

 The quantity produced was 3,944,133 short 

 tons, or 28,172,380 barrels, valued at $6,658,350, 

 a gain of 308,876 tons, or 2,206,588 barrels, over 

 the production in 1905. 



In 1906, as in 1905, a large part of the out- 

 put of crude salt was used in chemical works, 

 as brine. The quantity of dry salt reported in 

 190<; was 2,603,818 short tons, or 18,598,700 bar- 

 rels, valued at $6,179,666, an average value of 

 $2.37 a ton, or 33.226 cents a barrel. In 1905 

 the value was $2.25 a ton, or 31.512 cents a bar- 

 rel on a production of about 500,000 barrels 

 less. 



New York leads in value of output, closely 



followed by Michigan. The output of Michi- 

 gan, however, is considerably greater than that 

 of Xew York. New York got 23.4 cents a bar- 

 rel: .Michigan, 20.3 cents. Ohio ranks next, 

 followed by Kansas. In 1905 Kansas exceeded 

 Ohio in value of output, each showing an in- 

 crease for 1906. 



California, Texas and Utah show an in- 



; crease and Louisiana and West Virginia a de- 



I crease in value of output. 



Michigan and New York combined contrib- 



1 uted more than two-thirds (67.14 per cent) of 

 the total salt production of the United States. 

 The leading states, 1906, were: Michigan, 

 with 9,936,802 barrels; New York, 8,978,630; 

 Ohio, 3,236,758; Kansas, 2,198,837, and Louis- 

 iana, 1,179,528. These five states contributed 

 90.62 per cent of the total quantity produced 

 in the country during the year. 



PAPER FROM PEAT. 



The organization of a million dollar concern 

 to utilize the peat beds in Sweden for the 

 manufacture ot wrapping paper and paste- 

 board will have a tendency to stimulate the 

 organization of other companies in different 

 parts of the world. 



The quantity of peat in the world is enorm- 

 ous. It exists in all the countries of northern 

 Europe and has been used as fuel for centu- 

 ries. Deposits from 10 to 50 feet deep and 

 many miles in extent are not unusual. Siberia 

 has thousands of square miles of peat, and 

 much exists in the United States and Canada 



The margin of profit in making paper from 

 peat is very large. A ton valued at $30 can 

 be produced at a total cost of $15. The general 

 use of peat in making of wrapping paper would 

 have a tendency to relieve the present demand 

 on wood pulp. Michigan is vitally interested, 

 as it is one of the states of the union that has 

 rich peat beds in large quantities. Michigan 

 also has a paper mill that uses peat exclusive- 

 ly in the manufacture of paper. This mill is 

 located at Capac on the western borders of St. 

 Clair county and the industry is the qutgrowth 

 of an attempt to manufacture briquettes that 

 was unsuccessful. 



The Capac peat is known to contain too 

 small a supply of carbon to burn well or make 

 good fuel, but it has a great amount of fiber 

 in its makeup and is splendidly adapted to the 

 manufacture of box hoard and other coarse 

 varieties of paper. Authorities say that if ever 

 developed the peat paper will put all the straw 

 board mills out of business on account of the 

 fact that the product can be made so much 

 cheaper. 



Despite the fact that Kalamazoo is sur- 

 rounded -by peat bogs, and marshes, none of 

 the Kalamazoo paper makers know anything 

 about the making of paper from this com- 

 modity. Carl G. Kleinstuck, a local authority 

 on peat 

 ered tin- 

 peat in t ;>aper, 1 

 opinion - 

 Kahuna/. 



enough fi :;1 >' woul 



the best grade or kind from which to make 

 box board. 



ALPENA LUMBERMEN. 



All of the Alpena county lumbermen ex- 

 pect to operate in the woods this winter as 

 heavily as usual. John McDougall, of Alpena, 

 will operate a camp near Tower for, Isaac 

 Mauk. The Gilchrist mill has shut down for 

 the season and most of the men have gone 

 to the woods. The Gilchrist camps are now 

 in operation. 



Peter J. Murphy has started lumbering 

 operations in Montmorency county. E. M. 

 Lewis, of Millersburg, has ten camps in opera- 

 tion directly and by jobbers. He already has 

 2,000.000 feet of logs on skids. Peters Bros., 

 of Millersburg, will put in a saw mill and 

 lumber on the property of Cataline & Traflet. 

 They expect to put in about 400,000 feet. S. 

 F. Derry has two camps in operation on the 

 Ocqueoc. 



